In poultry processing plants where birds such as chickens are killed, defeathered, eviscerated and otherwise prepared for markets, the birds are normally suspended in a head-down attitude on an overhead endless conveyor line and conveyed serially through various processing stations. An important processing step is that of eviscerating the birds wherein the vent of each bird is opened and the viscera partially extracted so as to lay over the outer surface of the bird. It is a common practice to inspect each bird after it has been eviscerated and while the viscera is still hanging from the bird so that the inspector may determine the condition of the viscera before it is separated and removed from the bird. In this manner a diseased bird can be identified from an inspection of its viscera and removed from the processing line.
Poultry processing plants today have the capacity for running poultry processing lines at faster rates than inspectors can function. Therefore, it has become a practice to divide the poultry processing line at an inspection station so that only one out of each consecutive two or more birds is presented to the inspector thereby giving the inspector sufficient time to perform his inspection. Various schemes are employed to insure that the birds that pass the inspector at the station are later presented for inspection at either the same or another station.
The mechanisms used to divide poultry processing lines in the manner just described are referred to as line dividers. As exemplified by that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,633, the line dividers have typically been comprised of a set of paddles or the like mounted to an endless conveyor driven by a power takeout mechanism coupled with the poultry line conveyor itself. The paddles are mounted to the auxillary conveyor at spacings such that they are caused to move into the path of travel of the shackles from which the birds are suspended so as to engage selected ones in a sequence of the shackles such as, for example, every other one. A helical displacement element is also shown in this patent whose pitch is equal to the spacing between alternate shackles so that upon rotation it engages and deflects every other shackle.
Though line dividers of the type just described have performed satisfactorily they have not been versatile. By this is meant that once established on a poultry processing line the dividing sequence may not be readily altered. Thus, once coupled with the line at an inspection station the line divider acts in one sequence only, i.e., it may divide out one out of every consecutive two shackles for inspection. If another sequence is desired, such as where the processing line speed is advanced, another line divider mechanism would have to be substituted, for example a mechanism having a different spacing between paddles. In addition, line dividers of the type described have been relatively large and bulky and thus inherently costly to manufacture and to maintain. It therefore is a general object of the present invention to provide a line divider which overcomes the limitations described.